20 Adobe Photoshop Tricks

By Mihai Opariuc on November 30th 2008

Francesco Mugnai shows some tips & tricks for Adobe Photoshop users:

1 ) If you hold down ALT+CTRL+SHIFT (Mac: CMD+OPT+SHIFT) while starting Photoshop you can reset all the Photoshop settings back to factory default. Very usefull if you have problems with some tools or the interface.

2 ) One of my favorites. ALT+Click on the “eye” icon in the layer’s palette to hide all other layers.

3 ) Do you have trouble to find the cursor when you work with large canvases?
Simply press the spacebar and you’ll see the hand icon where the cursor is located.

4 ) When you are applying a “drop shadow” layer effect, try to leave open the dialog box.
You’ll be able to move the shadow with a simple drag and drop.

5 ) With a CTRL+Click on the triangle icon you can collapse or expand all layer groups.

6 ) Another cool shortcut. Press CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+E (Mac: CMD+OPT+SHIFT+E) to paste all the visible layers in a new one.

7 ) When you are in a dialog box, try to hold ALT(Mac: OPT) to transform the “cancel” button into a “reset” button. It doesnt work everywhere.

8 ) If you want to transform a path into a selection you have to press CTRL+ENTER (Mac: CMD-ENTER).

9 ) CTRL+ALT+Z (Mac: CTRL+OPT+ Z) to undo more than once.

10 ) Double Click on the stage (the gray area) to open a file or CTRL+Double Click to create a new file.

11 ) If you hold SHIFT while you click “File -> close”, Photoshop will close all the open windows at the same time.

12 ) ALT+CLICK (Mac: OPT+Click) a tool to switch through the related tools. For example, try ALT+Click (Mac: OPT+Click) on the Paint bucket tool, you will obtain the gradient tool.

13 ) CTRL+Click on the new layer incon to create a new layer immediately below the current layer.

14 ) Whit SHIFT+CTRL+ALT+T (Mac: SHIFT+CMD+OPT+T) you can repeat and clone the last transformation (made with CTRL+T).

15 ) To find the center of a document select the background layer and click CTRL+T (Mac: CMD+T) to see a crosshair in the middle. Now you can simply drag out a guide in this point to find the center.

16 ) When you have a selection hold CTRL and use the arrows to move it, one pixel at a time.
Use CTRL+SHIFT to move the selection by 10×10 pixels. With CTRL+SHIFT+D (Mac: CMD+SHIFT+T) you can load the last selection used.

17 ) Choose CTRL+0 to “zoom to fit”, CTRL+ALT+0 to “zoom to 100%”.
If you prefer you can zoom back to 100% pressing the space bar and then right click -> actual pixels.

18 ) With the type tool active press CTRL+T (mAC: CMD+T) to show and hide the respective palette.
Press CTRL+H (Mac: CMD+H) while a text is selected to show and hide the selection.

19 ) If you are working with the paint bucket tool, hold down ALT(OPT) to switch temporarily to the eyedropper tool.

20 ) To draw a straight line with the brush tool click where you want, hold down shift and then click again where you want.
Instead, to draw a dotted line you have to open the brush palette (hit F5) and from the “Brush Tip Shape” tab you have to set the “spacing” to 150%.
After that you can repeat the previous step like a normal straight line.

Source: Francesco Mugnai’s blog

You can discuss this tutorial on the forum, click HERE.

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Author: Mihai Opariuc - Contact the author.

My name is Opariuc Mihai, I'm a graphic/web designer from Ploiesti, Romania and I'm the owner of AREA 1. I hope we can share a lot of information, tips&tricks and ideas through this website. Twitter.